Berhampur: A court Friday sentenced a man to life imprisonment for raping his minor daughter in Ganjam district in 2023. Pranati Pattnaik, the Additional District Judge-cumJudge of the POCSO court here also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on the convict. He will undergo jail term for another year if he fails to pay the fine amount, said Special Public Prosecutor Narayan Panda.
The court also directed the district legal service authorities (DLSA) to pay Rs 10.50 lakh to the victim, he said. “The accused is none other than the father of the minor victim who is supposed to protect her from any such sexual harassment from anybody else. In spite of that, he committed rape on his minor daughter repeatedly,” the court observed. “In the above circumstances, he does not deserve any leniency.
However, considering the entire facts, I hold that this is a fit case in which the convict is liable to get the extreme punishment like imprisonment for life, which shall mean imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life,” the judge said. Police sources said the victim is the daughter of the convict’s first wife, who had died in 2021.
